QVC Jumps into the Black Friday Sales Bonanza

Which channel can you get ahead this holiday season?

Instead of running out and bumping elbows with thousands of other deal-seekers this Black Friday, what if you could reap the benefits from your own home? That's the plan from television retailer QVC, who has announced a whole day of new items and special deals starting Thanksgiving night.

In the past QVC has treated Black Friday like any other day, but with the recession forcing shoppers to look even harder for special deals, the shopping network is hoping to lure customers away from stores.

"This year, and we’ve been planning on this for many months, we really expect to join the fray with the other retailers," said Doug Rose, the network’s vice president of programming and marketing.

As for the deals themselves, the network plans to offer three times the "special value" gifts as it normally does, with a full five hours of gifts that have never been featured on the shopping channel before.

That's a whole lotta shopping, right from the comfort of you own couch. And with all the hassle of going down to the big retailers and standing in long lines, QVC's dial-in ordering doesn't sound like such a bad idea.

"There are a lot of people who think of going to the mall on 'Black Friday' as dental surgery — painful and awful," Rose said. "We’ll be a good alternative."